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Prof Chang's team found a way to turn a humble cocktail of bacteria and vegetables into a targeted system that seeks out and kills diseased cells.

They engineered a harmless form of bacteria called E. coli Nissle, which is found in the gut.

Using genetic techniques they developed it into a probiotic that attached to the surface of bowel cancer cells and secreted an enzyme to convert a substance found in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables into a potent anti cancer agent.

The idea was for the cancer cells in the vicinity to take up this chemical and be killed. Normal cells cannot do this conversion, nor are they affected by the toxin, so the system should be targeted only to bowel cancer cells.

True enough, the mixture of probiotics and broccoli extract or water containing the dietary substance killed more than 95 percent of colorectal cancer cells in a dish.

Moreover, the mixture had no effect on cells from other types of cancer such as breast and stomach cancer.

Dr Ho added: "Mothers are right after all, eating vegetables is important."

Each year around 16,000 people in Britain die of bowel cancer. More than 40,000 people are diagnosed each year, making it the fourth most common form of the disease.

Around 110 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every day - an average of one every 15 minutes. But if diagnosed early, more than 90 per cent of cases can be treated successfully.